On opening the door, three men entered, having their great coats muffled about them, and their hats slouched.  One of them, named Kenny, was a short villain, but of a thick-set, hairy frame.  The other was known as “the Big Mower,” in consequence of his following that employment every season, and of his great skill in performing it.  He had a deep-rooted objection against permitting the palm of his hand to be seen; a reluctance which common fame attributed to the fact of his having received on that part the impress of a hot iron, in the shape of the letter T, not forgetting to add, that T was the hieroglyphic for Thief.  The villain himself affirmed it was simply the mark of a cross, burned into it by a blessed friar, as a charm against St. Vitus’s dance, to which he had once been subject.  The people, however, were rather sceptical, not of the friar’s power to cure that malady, but of the fact of his ever having moved a limb under it; and they concluded with telling him, good-humoredly enough, that notwithstanding the charm, he was destined to die “wid the threble of it in his toe.”  The third was a noted pedlar called Martin, who, under pretence of selling tape, pins, scissors, etc., was very useful in setting such premises as this virtuous fraternity might, without much risk, make a descent upon.

“I thought yez would out-stay your time,” said the elder Meehan, relapsing into his determined hardihood of character; “we’re ready, hours agone.  Dick Rice gave me two curlew an’ two patrich calls to-day.  Now pass the glass among yez, while Denny brings the arms.  I know there’s danger in this business, in regard of the Cassidys livin’ so near us.  If I see anybody afut, I’ll use the curlew call:  an’ if not, I’ll whistle twice on the patrich (* partridge) one, an’ ye may come an.  The horse is worth eighty guineas, if he’s worth a shillin’; an’ we’ll make sixty off him ourselves.”

For some time they chatted about the plan in contemplation, and drank freely of the spirits, until at length the impatience of the elder Meehan at the delay of his brother became ungovernable.  His voice deepened into tones of savage passion, as he uttered a series of blasphemous curses against this unfortunate butt of his indignation and malignity.  At length he rushed out furiously to know why he did not return; but, on reaching a secret excavation in the mound against which the house was built, he found, to his utter dismay, that Denis had made his escape by an artificial passage, scooped out of it to secure themselves a retreat in case of surprise or detection.  It opened behind the house among a clump of black-thorn and brushwood, and wis covered “with green turf in such a manner as to escape the notice of all who were not acquainted with the secret.  Meehan’s face on his return was worked up into an expression truly awful.

“We’re sould!” said he; “but stop, I’ll tache the thraithur what revenge is!”

In a moment he awoke his brother’s two sons, and dragged them by the neck, one in each hand, to the hearth.